ERG’s EPD Ecosystem Quality Labeling Initiative

Label Program Overview Newsletter

Environmental product declarations (EPDs) provide robust information about the embodied carbon and other life cycle environmental impacts of products and services. In the construction sector, a growing number of project owners are developing and implementing policies to reduce the embodied carbon associated with buildings and infrastructure. Reliable, accurate EPDs are crucial to support these decisions.

ERG is developing a program to recognize high-quality EPDs, providing a way for project owners and other interested parties to easily assess the quality of an EPD before using it to support project-level decisions. This initiative will build on the EPD improvement objectives of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Construction Material Opportunities to Reduce Emissions (C-MORE) program. To continue this important work, ERG is convening a coalition of firms and individuals to participate in ERG’s EPD Quality Labeling program.

Please use the form below to get involved or sign up for our newsletter!

View the July 7, 2025 press release  for more information.

Upcoming Opportunities to Engage with ERG’s EPD Quality Label Program

EPD Quality Label Program staff will attend several upcoming events and will also hold a webinar to discuss the developing program in more detail. We hope to see you there!

Meet the ERG EPD Quality Label Team

A team of leading embodied carbon experts is directing the development of ERG’s EPD Quality Label. With experience spanning public procurement, industry environmental reporting, PCR development, EPD software product management, sustainability labeling, novel material production, and LCA and LCI development, the group brings over 50 years of experience in LCAs and EPDs.
 

Peter Bacas

Peter Bacas

Sarah Cashman

Sarah Cashman

Troy Hottle

Troy Hottle

Mark Petruzzi

Mark Petruzzi

Joseph Shacat

Joseph Shacat

Have questions or want to provide input? Send us an email at EPDQuality@erg.com.

Label Program Overview

Purpose of the Label Program

ERG’s EPD Quality Label Program will enhance the rigor, consistency, and credibility of embodied carbon disclosures. It will support more transparent and effective low-carbon materials markets and serve as the steward of quality EPDs across the construction sector, resulting in:

  • Greater trust in EPDs for construction project owners.
  • Fewer compliance burdens for manufacturers and EPD developers.
  • A streamlined definition for specifiers who require EPDs for projects.

Ultimately, this program will support a broad whole-project approach for embodied carbon accounting by leveraging high-quality EPDs across all sectors.

Why EPDs?

Product- and facility-specific EPDs are increasingly used to support purchasing decisions based on embodied carbon emissions. Despite following international and product category-specific standards governing EPD development, there are still concerns related to the transparency, comparability, and quality of EPDs. These concerns generally fall into three main categories:

  1. Content of EPDs, including the reliability of primary data, adherence to relevant standards, and the ability to electronically transfer EPD data.
  2. Content of Product Category Rules (PCRs), which define requirements for developing EPDs within a given sector, and their effectiveness in ensuring EPD quality and comparability.
  3. Program operator governance and processes for developing PCRs.

Leveraging PCRs to Improve EPD Quality

Our label program requirements will focus on existing best practices and standards for EPDs. As our program develops, it will evolve to meet the diverse needs of the embodied carbon community.

Product Category Rules (PCRs) play an important role in determining EPD quality by prescribing product category-specific requirements for transparency, methodological approach, reporting parameters, and other factors. PCRs vary in the specificity of their requirements, which ultimately affects EPD quality and comparability. Several organizations have established standards to improve the quality of PCRs as part of a larger effort to improve EPD quality. For example, numerous PCRs in the construction sector now conform to either the U.S. EPA Criteria for Product Category Rules (PCRs) to Support the Label Program for Low Embodied Carbon Construction Materials (EPA’s PCR Criteria) or the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment (ACLCA) PCR Open Standard.

In the near term, ERG will leverage these existing standards by first identifying PCRs that conform to either EPA’s PCR Criteria or ACLCA’s PCR Open Standard. We will then develop a set of EPD criteria based on the PCR requirements in these two standards, enabling EPDs generated under current PCRs to meet our quality requirements. ERG’s EPD criteria will resemble the EPA’s Draft EPD Criteria for Data Quality and Transparency in form and function, while the specific content will be revised as needed.

ACLCA recently initiated a process to update the PCR Open Standard and ERG is committed to participating in that process. We anticipate the release of a new version of the PCR Open Standard in the coming year, which is expected to incorporate aspects of EPA’s C-MORE program. The EPD Quality Label program will adopt this improved standard as the basis for determining PCR conformance. We will provide a phase-in period for the new standard to accommodate PCR and EPD update cycles.

Assessing EPD Conformance

ERG will utilize a digital data approach for the intake and processing of EPDs to streamline the conformity assessment and labeling process. This will allow the program to scale up and accommodate the volume of EPDs in the construction sector while keeping costs low. We’ll provide more information about the EPD conformity assessment process in the coming months.

Newsletter

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